Opinion

There have been many ungenerous things said of politicians in recent years, but I can remember virtually none of them being accused of a surfeit of modesty. Hubris, yes. Venality, on occasion. But modesty, less so. And yet this virtue apparently courses through the veins of at least some politicians: the [...]

Since the Modern Slavery Act of 2015, British companies over a certain size have been required to report on slavery in their supply chains. Their statements are both shocking and admirable. Shocking because they make clear that the incidence of slavery has become normalised once again – and not just in criminal [...]

If all goes according to the Brexiters’ plan, we will wake up exactly one year from today to find that Britain is no longer a member of the European Union. In practice, we anti-Brexiters have just six months to avert that outcome. For if, in its “meaningful vote” this autumn, the British parliament decides to [...]

When I wrote an about-to-be-published book last year about problems with social media, I thought it would be cute to call it Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. And then the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, motivating a modest but notable wave of Facebook deletions in protest, including [...]

It’s easy to laugh at Britain’s unpopular populists. Ukip is dead. Farage has been reduced to being a minor radio personality in Britain and a down-the-bill warm-up act in Trump country. As for the supposedly serious Brexiters, the Observer’s revelations will surely discredit the Vote Leave crew, assuming they [...]

During the 2016 presidential elections Bill Clinton believed his wife’s team had failed to learn one of the lessons of Brexit: working people felt alienated and there was an anti-establishment mood in the air. But his suggestions were politely acknowledged and then discreetly shelved by the number-crunchers in [...]

At this week’s summit of heads of government, the European Union and the United Kingdom are likely to agree on a transition period and a timetable for talks on the outline of the future trade deal. In the autumn, the two sides will probably finalise the text of the withdrawal agreement, enabling the UK to leave the [...]

The revelation that Cambridge Analytica exploited the data of 50 million Facebook profiles to target American voters is indeed frightening. But Cambridge Analytica shouldn’t act as a diversion from the real bad guy in this story: Facebook. It is mystifying that as his company regulates the flow of information to [...]

Risk is a part of life, and schools are very much in the business of preparing children for life – not just as scholars but as human beings, citizens and custodians of the world. So news that a primary school in Essex has introduced bricks and saws into its playground to help children understand risk should be [...]

People are always sniping about the cesspit that is social media, but credit where credit is due, the good people of Twitter really showed some restraint on Monday. This story started on Sunday when the Times revealed that the Tories – in a bid to compete with Labour’s growing membership and in particular their increase in [...]